The 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, entitled We Don’t Need Another Hero, is a conversation with artists and contributors who think and act beyond art as they confront the incessant anxieties perpetuated by a willful disregard for complex subjectivities.

Johanna Unzueta

Oscar Murillo

Liz Johnson Artur

Starting from the position of Europe, Germany, and Berlin as a city in dialogue with the world, the 10th Berlin Biennale confronts the current widespread states of collective psychosis. By referencing Tina Turner’s song from 1985, We Don’t Need Another Hero, we draw from a moment directly preceding major geopolitical shifts that brought about regime changes and new historical figures. The 10th Berlin Biennale does not provide a coherent reading of histories or the present of any kind. Like the song, it rejects the desire for a savior. Instead, it explores the political potential of the act of self-preservation, refusing to be seduced by unyielding knowledge systems and historical narratives that contribute to the creation of toxic subjectivities. We are interested in different configurations of knowledge and power that enable contradictions and complications.

Still from Bronx Gothic, 2017, by Andrew Rossi

Awuor Onyango, Makeda, 2016 / Courtesy Awuor Onyango

Donna Kukama, Chapter F, 2017 / Photo Thomas Geiger

Already launched in July 2017, I’m Not Who You Think I’m Not, the public program of the 10th Berlin Biennale, set the tone in a first event that took place in collaboration with the independent educational initiative Each One Teach One (EOTO) e. V. in Berlin. This was followed by a panel discussion in cooperation with the FNB JoburgArtFair in September 2017. The public program disavows assumed being-ness and know-hows, perspectives that are often based on existing, constructed social frameworks and their associated speculations about particular subjectivities. Throughout the buildup to the 10th Berlin Biennale until its conclusion in September 2018, the public program creates situations evading these points of view and, at the same time, proposes a refreshed grammar for facing the present.

Victoria Tomaschko

Zineb Sedira, Sugar Silo I, 2014. Diptych

Zofia Klajs, Strange Attractors, 2018

Mario Pfeifer Studio

10th Berlin Biennale is curated by Gabi Ngcobo with a curatorial team composed of Nomaduma Rosa Masilela, Serubiri Moses, Thiago de Paula Souza, and Yvette Mutumba. It takes place from June 9 to September 9, 2018 at various venues in Berlin.

The 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art, entitled We Don’t Need Another Hero, is a conversation with artists and contributors who think and act beyond art as they confront the incessant anxieties perpetuated by a willful disregard for complex subjectivities.

Johanna Unzueta

Oscar Murillo

Liz Johnson Artur

Starting from the position of Europe, Germany, and Berlin as a city in dialogue with the world, the 10th Berlin Biennale confronts the current widespread states of collective psychosis. By referencing Tina Turner’s song from 1985, We Don’t Need Another Hero, we draw from a moment directly preceding major geopolitical shifts that brought about regime changes and new historical figures. The 10th Berlin Biennale does not provide a coherent reading of histories or the present of any kind. Like the song, it rejects the desire for a savior. Instead, it explores the political potential of the act of self-preservation, refusing to be seduced by unyielding knowledge systems and historical narratives that contribute to the creation of toxic subjectivities. We are interested in different configurations of knowledge and power that enable contradictions and complications.

Still from Bronx Gothic, 2017, by Andrew Rossi

Awuor Onyango, Makeda, 2016 / Courtesy Awuor Onyango

Donna Kukama, Chapter F, 2017 / Photo Thomas Geiger

Already launched in July 2017, I’m Not Who You Think I’m Not, the public program of the 10th Berlin Biennale, set the tone in a first event that took place in collaboration with the independent educational initiative Each One Teach One (EOTO) e. V. in Berlin. This was followed by a panel discussion in cooperation with the FNB JoburgArtFair in September 2017. The public program disavows assumed being-ness and know-hows, perspectives that are often based on existing, constructed social frameworks and their associated speculations about particular subjectivities. Throughout the buildup to the 10th Berlin Biennale until its conclusion in September 2018, the public program creates situations evading these points of view and, at the same time, proposes a refreshed grammar for facing the present.

Victoria Tomaschko

Zineb Sedira, Sugar Silo I, 2014. Diptych

Zofia Klajs, Strange Attractors, 2018

Mario Pfeifer Studio

10th Berlin Biennale is curated by Gabi Ngcobo with a curatorial team composed of Nomaduma Rosa Masilela, Serubiri Moses, Thiago de Paula Souza, and Yvette Mutumba. It takes place from June 9 to September 9, 2018 at various venues in Berlin.